


Once Upon A Dream

by Weevilo707



Series: Maleficent AU [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Inspired by Maleficent (2014), Multi, Temporary Character Death, magcretia baby angus, not quite tho, the ships are all pretty background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-10-31 19:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17855591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: Once upon a time there were two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom of Fae. Distrusting and fearful of each other, the lands were split. The changed one day, when three children from the kingdom of man happened upon two twin fae children.What happens when friendships break, leaving the two kingdoms even more torn than they were before?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkrystalSky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkrystalSky/gifts).



“I’m just saying this probably isn’t a  _ great _ idea. Like, he’ll come back once he gets hungry, right?”

Barry knew he was nervous about a lot of things, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t just him being nervous. He could say with some certainty that what they were doing was a poor decision.

There was a reason people didn’t cross over into the Fae Kingdom. That reason being they didn’t tend to come back afterwards.

“He won’t come back if he gets  _ eaten _ by like a dragon, or a unicorn,” Magnus shot back, still rushing ahead with no hesitation. This wasn’t surprising, and Barry sighed as he stumbled through the underbrush after him.

“If Steven manages to happen upon a unicorn I’m pretty sure they aren’t known for being savage hunters Magnus,” Lucretia added, trailing along behind them.

“Steven could totally find a unicorn. He’s pure of heart,” Magnus said, which didn’t have  _ much _ to do with the current issue. Barry didn’t question in though, instead keeping a nervous grip on the iron bracelet around his wrist, running the large metal coin that hung from it along his fingers.

Living so close to the border, his mom never let him leave home without the trinket for protection. Magnus’s and Lucretia’s parents were the same way. Even still, he glanced again to make sure Magnus still had his necklace on, and Lucretia her own bracelet. Hers was thick with a triangle design etched into it, as opposed to his small chain.

“Guys, I really think we might’ve gone too far this time,” Barry insisted as Magnus continued to call out for his dog. The forest around them looked different now. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but if he had to try, he’d go with it looked a little more magical.

That didn’t say much, but he was twelve and words were hard.

“I think Barry might be right Magnus. We should go see if he’s maybe gone back home, we can lay some food out to try and lure him back,” Lucretia suggested. Magnus sighed, not sounding happy by the idea. He started to take a closer look at their surroundings though, his hand coming up to hold the iron tooth pendant around his neck nervously.

“Yeah okay, Steven’s a good boy, he probably didn’t head this far out,” he relented. Barry was thankful as they started heading back with that.

“Uh guys, which way was back?” Magnus asked after they were walking for a bit longer. Barry frowned, looking around then. He could have sworn they should have been back in the normal part of the forest by now.

“It was this way, right?” Barry asked, pointing in the direction he was pretty sure they were supposed to go.

“No, I think we got turned around a little, we should go this way,” Lucretia said, starting off a bit to the left from where Barry had been pointing. He didn’t argue, Lucretia was good at paying attention to those kinds of things.

“What was that?” Magnus asked suddenly, latching onto Barry’s arm.

“What was what?” he asked back, trying not to get freaked out. Magnus, as much as he was the most outgoing of their group, also tended to get spooked kinda easily.

“That!” Magnus insisted, holding tighter onto Barry’s arm and pointing out into the underbrush. He looked, hoping he wouldn’t actually see anything.

Instead, he saw two eyes staring back at him from within the leaves.

“Shit!” Barry shouted, grabbing the nearest thing he could find, a large stick, and lobbing it at the creature. The eyes immediately disappeared with a loud rustle. Magnus was shouting, and not thinking twice Barry grabbed Lucretia’s arm as well and starting  _ running. _

“Wait, this way!” Lucretia shouted, trying to pull him and Magnus in another direction. Barry tried to follow her, wanting to get out of here. Before they could get far through something else moved in the underbrush, and Magnus yelped as a rock flew past his arm.

“Not that way!” he yelled, pulling them both behind him as he led them all further into the forest. Barry had no earthly way of knowing where they were heading, but every so often those  _ things _ in the woods make it clear that they were still around. Barry would see eyes or an arm, or they'd throw something at them from the bushes.

“Over here,” Lucretia insisted. They hadn’t seen sign of the things following them for a bit, and Barry didn’t think twice before following Lucretia towards the cave she’d pointed out. Running inside, Barry immediately hid with his back up against the cave wall. His two friends followed his lead, the three of them trying to stay as quiet as possible.

“Do you think we outran them?” Magnus asked in a whisper. Or well, his attempt at a whisper, which was just kind of a wispy sounding talking voice.

“Yes? Maybe? I don’t know,” Barry said, not wanting to risk poking his head out to look yet. He was staring at the cave entrance though, wanting to be ready if they cornered them in here. Ready to do what, he had no idea, but ready.

“Um, guys?” Lucretia said, sounding nervous.

“Hmm?” Barry hummed, not bothering looking back.

_ “Guys,” _ she said more insistently.

“Luce, we gotta be sure they’re gone. What’s wrong?” Magnus asked, and Barry figured he was probably watching the entrance too.

“It’s- um-” Lucretia stuttered, and it wasn’t often that she was at a loss for words. In any other situation that would have gotten Barry’s attention immediately, but he had to make sure nothing was going to sneak up on th-

“You guys look so  _ squishy!” _ a delighted voice Barry definitely didn’t recognize said. His head snapped towards the source, and he heard Magnus shout, attempting to scramble back but tripping on the loose gravel.

“They look like dorks,” another voice said, and Barry could see in the dim light of the cave now that there were two other people in here with them. People? Not humans.

Fae.

“Don’t be  _ rude _ Taako,” the first one said. They were identical, and Barry was fairly sure that wasn’t because these were the first fae he’d ever seen. One of them had longer hair than the other, but they were the same light golden color that seemed to gleam in the darkness. Their skin was dark and they had long ears that both seemed to be pointed straight up in curiosity. The one that had just spoke was grinning brightly, and Barry could see an edge of sharpness to their teeth. Everything about them was slightly more  _ sharp _ than seemed natural.

And there was that same thing as with the forest. That edge of strangeness that Barry couldn’t put an exact descriptor too, that was simply  _ magical. _

“I mean, you’re not wrong, but still no need to be rude,” that one continued, and the other one, Taako apparently, snickered.

“Well, these two are dorks, got that in one,” Magnus said, apparently not as terrified as he’d been a moment ago.

“Are you guys humans? We’ve never seen any up close before,” the one asked. Barry still wasn’t sure what their name was.

“Yeah, we’re humanimans,” Magnus said, which got one of the two to laugh. “I’m Magnus, and these are Barry and Lucretia,” he added, introducing the rest of them.

“You’re fae, right?” Barry asked, wanting to be sure. He wasn’t surprised when they nodded, although they did it in such a simultaneous way it was a little creepy. And cool.

“Yep! I’m Lup and this is my dumb brother Taako,” the one now identified as Lup said. Taako shoved at her in annoyance but she didn’t seem all that bothered. “What are you guys doing out here? You know humans don’t come into this kingdom, right?” she asked. Both Barry and Lup glanced over at Magnus simultaneously, and he at least had the presence of mind to look sheepish about it.

“We were looking for Magnus’s dog but we ended up getting turned around,” Lucretia began to explain. “Then there was… something, in the underbrush. It kept chasing us and throwing sticks and such,” as she explained that part, the two fae frowned.

“What kind of things?” Taako asked. Barry couldn’t help but think about how weird this was. He’d always been warned to stay away from fae, that they were dangerous, but these two didn’t seem like they were going to hurt them any. They actually seemed pretty nice, if a little intimidating.

“We couldn’t get a good look at them? But there were at least two, and they had like, hands. I think I saw red hair on one?” Barry supplied. A look of realization crossed over the twins faces at that.

“Oh! That’s probably Merle and Davenport!” Lup said, before laughing. “Wow, you guys must’ve  _ really  _ freaked them out! They’re always getting on us about how dangerous humans are and to stay away from them.”

“Wait, those things were scared of  _ us?” _ Magnus asked, and Taako snorted before nodding.

“Pretty shocking seeing you up close, I’m sure, but yeah. Humans don’t tend to come over here for good reasons, they were probably just trying to drive you all back,” he explained, and Barry supposed that made sense. It felt weird considering he’d always been taught that  _ fae _ were the dangerous ones, but these two didn’t seem like they were lying.

“Well, we’d love to go back, but I’d kinda prefer not to have stuff thrown at us when we do,” Lucretia said, and Barry nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Lup said, and then a grin spread across her face. It was a little unnerving, the way it showed all those sharp teeth. “Oh! I have an idea,” she added, excitement clear in her voice.

“I love ideas!” Magnus said, and Barry laughed at that. It was certainly the truth.

“Okay, so those two definitely aren’t gonna actually hurt you guys, they’re way too nice for that. We could prank then  _ so good _ right now and get you guys back over to the human kingdom,” she explained.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Lucretia asked, sounding about as hesitant on this plan as Barry felt.

“It’s a great idea! Come on, we’ve got a bunch of stuff we ca-  _ ow!” _ Lup shouted. She’d reached over to grab Lucretia’s wrist, but instantly snapped her hand back in pain. Taako was hovering over her before they could blink, taking a look at her hand. Barry could see something that looked like a burn there now.

“Are you okay?” Lucretia asked, concerned.

“Yeah, yeah it’s fine. Taako  _ please _ it’s fine,” she said, swatting her brother away with her uninjured hand. He was glaring at them all with suspicion now, and it took Barry a second before he realized what must’ve caused that.

“Oh! Shoot, was it the iron?” he asked, a hand now on his own charm.

“You guys are wearing iron?” Taako asked, still looking like he didn’t trust them anymore.

“Yeah, it’s to protect against- oh,” Magnus said, the realization dawning on him.

Barry knew that he’d always been told not to trust fae, but these two didn’t seem bad. They were kids like them. He didn’t like that Taako was suspicious of them now, and he felt bad that Lup had gotten hurt.

So, without thinking twice he quickly started taking off his bracelet.

“We can get rid of them. We don’t wanna- it’s fine,” he said, relieved when Magnus and Lucretia followed his example.

“That’s- really?” Taako asked, sounding dumbstruck. Barry nodded, taking the three charms and moving over to a corner of the cave to bury them.

“Yeah, of course. They hurt you,” he said, like it was obvious.

The two twin fae were just staring at them for a long moment, and Barry was suddenly worried if he’d done the wrong thing.

“So, that prank you guys were talking about?” Magnus asked. At that the two broke out of their surprise, large grins spreading across their faces.

“Hell yeah, come on!”

——

Lup really liked these humans.

Her hand still stung some from where she’d grabbed the iron, but she could put that out of her mind. It seemed well worth it when they saw Davenport and Merle’s panicked faces scrambling away from their new friends. Even more so when Magnus had lost his footing, tripping and dropping Barry and Lucretia where they were up on his shoulders. The three had tumbled out of the long robe Taako had found.

Luckily Merle and Dav were already long gone, and didn’t see her and Taako as they came out of the bushes, laughing like crazy.

Lup knew they should get the humans back over the boarder as soon as possible. It wouldn’t be safe for them here if anyone besides Merle and Davenport came around, and humans weren’t supposed to be in the kingdom of fae to begin with.

But they were having fun, and it ended up being almost dark by the time they finally lead the three to the boarder.

“You guys should be able to find your way back from here,” Lup said, Lucretia nodding in assurance.

“You also really shouldn’t come back,” Taako added, and Lup had to keep herself from frowning at that. It was true, they  _ shouldn’t.  _ It was dangerous and now allowed.

“Oh yeah, we’re gonna be in so much trouble for being out so long,” Magnus said.

“And for losing our charms,” Lucretia added, and Barry winced some at that.

“Yeah, we can put that one on me. But uh, I guess we should get back before it gets any later,” Barry said. He didn’t sound like he wanted to leave, and Lup almost wished they wouldn’t.

“Right, it was cool meeting you guys!” Magnus said, and Lup grinned back at them.

“You too!” she said, and she meant to.

“Now begone vile humans! And don’t come back to our domain!” Taako shouted, not quite able to get through it without laughing. The three humans laughed too, quickly running off to their part of the forest. Once they were out of sight her and Taako started heading back as well.

“They were nice,” Lup said with a sigh. Taako nodded in agreement, and she could tell that he was thinking everything over.

“Not what I expected from humans,” he said.

“Pretty sure we weren’t what they were expecting from fae either,” Lup said, and Taako chuckled at that.

“True,” he said, and it was quiet for a moment. “Still, didn’t expect them to get rid of their iron jewelry,” he added.

“Yeah, that was nice of them,” she agreed. “Like, they could have just taken it off. They didn’t need to get  _ rid _ of it, especially since they’re gonna get in trouble for that.”

“Really not like those greedy humans from all the stories,” Taako said.

She and Taako headed back home with that. They ended up apologizing and explaining what had happened to Merle and Davenport later. Neither of them were really happy with the fact, but it was over with now. The humans hadn’t caused any trouble, and they weren’t coming back.

Or at least, that’s what they  _ thought.  _ A few weeks later she’d been hanging out in the woods with Taako, when they both heard something moving in the nearby brush. Without a word they both started heading towards the sound.

Lup’s ears pitched up in excitement when she saw what it was, and she scrambled out of their hiding spot.

“Barry!”

“My dude, the fuck?” Taako said, coming out after her. Barry looked nervous and then relieved when he saw them.

“Oh, hi guys,” he said, and Lup shouldn’t be so excited to see him. She should be like Taako and concerned about why he’d come back.

“I thought we told you to stay away,” he said, and Barry nodded.

“Oh, yeah I know. I just, uh, wanted to see you guys again, I guess,” he said.

“That’s not a good reason,” Taako said, but Lup was too excited at the chance to get to play with their new friends again.

“What are you talking about, it’s an  _ excellent  _ reason. We’re great,” she said, and she could see Taako trying and failing to fight back a smile.

“I mean, okay you’re not wrong there,” he relented.

“Where are Lucretia and Magnus?” Lup asked, and Barry looked a little sheepish at the question.

“I wasn’t sure if you guys would be mad about us coming back, so uh, I figured I’d come on my own. I can try and bring them next time if you want though,” he said.

“Hell yeah!” Lup said at the same time as her brother chimed in-

“Next time?”

Barry did end up bringing the other two next time, and the time after that. It wasn’t long before it had become a recurring thing. Lup wasn’t sure if any of them were telling their parents where they were going, but her and Taako made sure that none of the other fae or animals here hurt them. They even ended up introducing the three to Merle and Davenport properly.

The two had acted disapproving for a bit, insisting that bringing humans into the kingdom was  _ dangerous _ and  _ against the rules _ and that if these three stayed they’d have to be  _ killed. _

It lasted until Magnus and Barry and Lucretia had all started looking pretty nervous. Then Merle started laughing, and it became clear that this was all payback for their original prank.

And things ended up being good for a while. Really good. For the next couple years, to the point where Lup had stopped paying attention to the time. Magnus, Barry, and Lucretia would sneak over to their kingdom, and they’d all hang out, and it would be  _ fun. _

Lup wasn’t sure why she’d ever been distrustful of humans. Even Taako hadn’t been worried about any of it for a good long time.

They cared about these people. Who  _ cared _ if they were humans, they were their friends.

And maybe in the resulting years, some of those feelings of friendship started to turn into something else.

So when Barry had asked her about wanting to learn magic, talking so excited and passionate about how if they could explain it to people, maybe they wouldn’t be so afraid anymore. That maybe they could expand this peace their group had reached and thrived in. She hadn’t thought twice about agreeing.

She and Taako had been learning magic together all their lives. Slowly working Barry through the blundering steps felt natural. His human tongue fumbled over the words, but over time he managed to refine it. His skill grew faster than Lup had expected, despite how smart she knew he was. She hadn’t thought his human limitations would let him make much progress.

The better he got, the more excited Lup was to teach him more. Sometimes Taako or some of the others would join in, but more and more often it was just the two of them.

She supposed that was why she didn’t notice right away when things had started to change.

It wasn’t like they all didn’t know that as they grew up they’d end up being pulled in different directions. Of course they would be. Even with this happiness they’d managed to find together, they were still from different kingdoms. Humans and fae still did not technically coexist together, there was still so much fear.

That was why Lup was training so hard with Barry, to try to fix some of that. She guessed they had pulled away from the rest of the group some for that ambition, so they hadn’t noticed when Lucretia had started to pull away as well.

Despite being the quietest one of their group, the girl had always been so driven. Lup had admired that in her. She’d even offered to teach Lucretia some magic after having started with Barry. She’d stayed for a few lessons, but she’d gotten too busy for it after a bit. Lup hadn’t thought anything of it at the time.

Maybe she should have.

“You know, I haven’t seen Luce around in a hot minute, you know if anythings wrong?” Lup asked after Barry had headed home at the end of one particularly long magic session. Taako shrugged, turning the page in his own book. She’d never been as into the whole transmutation field, but it was almost effortless for her brother. Plus, it had come in handy plenty of times.

“No idea. Magnus keeps insisting that she’s busy, but you’re right, she hadn’t stopped by in forever. I think the last time was last month when she returned that book you lent her,” Taako explained. Lup frowned, that was concerning, but not overly so. If something was genuinely wrong, Magnus would tell them. Even if Lucretia had made him promise not to for some reason, he was horrible at keeping those kinds of secrets.

They weren’t practicing their magic the day it became official. Or maybe not official, but there was definitely a realness there now that wasn’t before, something cutting through the denial of her just ‘being busy.’

It had been the five of them hanging out though. Merle and Davenport teasing Taako about something or another. Lup hadn’t been paying attention to what had started it, but she still jumped in. Barry was laughing at them all, which was fair.

It had stopped when Magnus walked into the clearing, and Lup had smiled brightly. He’d been absent somewhat lately too, but Lup had figured that was because he’d never had any affinity towards the magic lessons.

“Sup dude?” she asked happily, and that’s when she noticed the smile on his face was a little forced.

“Hey guys. Oh good, you’re all here,” he said, and Taako raised an eyebrow at that.

“Sure are. What, you got some big announcement? Your dog having puppies?” Taako asked. Even the suggestion of puppies put a genuinely excited look on Magnus’s face.

“Man, I wish it was puppies. No, I just wanted to um, let you guys know I probably won’t get a chance to visit for a while. A month? Maybe two? I’m not sure, oh, and Lucretia too,” he said. Lup couldn’t keep herself from frowning, and she could see looks of concern on everyone else around as well.

“Lucretia’s already been MIA for fucking ever, what’s the new deal?” Taako pressed. Lup didn’t like the way he brushed off Lucretia’s leaving like that, but it made sense. She knew her brother wasn’t great at emotions and was probably doing everything he could to avoid admitting he missed her.

“So, you know how Lucretia always talked about um, living in the castle?” Magnus asked, and Lup nodded. She’d thought it was a fucking great ambition, castles seemed awesome. “So, she wants to uh, do that. And I guess I’m helping her?” he explained.

“Okay, but why do you gotta stop coming here to do that?” Lup pressed.

“It’s just gonna be a lot of work? Like, I’m not never coming back, it’ll just be, you know, less? I guess,” Magnus said. Lup wasn’t sure how true that was, but she wanted to believe it.

“Well, let Lucretia know she’s welcome back here anytime, we all miss her,” Barry said, and Lup nodded in agreement.

“I mean, she could have at least said bye herself, but yeah, let her know she doesn’t have to be such a workaholic. I’ve already got these two to deal with,” Taako said, jabbing a thumb over at her and Barry. Lup stuck her tongue out at him, and Taako ignored her. It got Magnus to laugh though.

“I will, for sure.”

They didn’t see much of Lucretia or Magnus after that. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was still even less than Lup had expected.

They didn’t have a lot of time to think about it though. Lup wasn’t wrong about the future pulling them all in different directions.

The kingdom of fae didn’t actually  _ have _ a king, or a queen. Maybe it did at one point, and that’s where the name came from, or maybe the humans called it that so much the name had stuck. Either way, that wasn’t how it worked. Her and Taako had never been aiming for those kinds of positions.

Lup just wanted to get stronger, and to protect those around her. She knew Taako only cared about protecting her and their friends, but when Lup extended what she cared about out further and further, he didn’t complain. Instead he stuck by her side and had her back, and she knew that wouldn’t ever change.

So they kept growing in power, and Lup kept protecting the fae around them. They’d learned that not all humans were as understanding and selfless as the friends they’d made. Until Barry could start to change the minds of the people through his magic, until maybe Lucretia actually lived in the castle and could tell people that they didn’t have to fear the fae, they had to protect themselves.

She wasn’t sure when people had started calling them protectors of the fae, but she couldn’t say she didn’t like the title.

With all of that though, her and Taako still tried to stay close to their friends. They still hung out with Barry as often as possible. Which was still pretty damn often, if Lup had anything to say about it.

They’d gotten on the topic of their new title this time. They’d had to follow through with it more and more often. Lup wasn’t a fan of the fucker currently ruling the kingdom of man, but apparently he wasn’t a fan of them either.

“You know, you really are like a queen with all of this,” Barry said, his voice was both fond and impressed. It was like that often, enough that Lup was sure she wasn’t imagining it.

Enough that she finally wanted to  _ say _ something.

“Well, in that case why don’t you become my king?” she asked, not looking directly at Barry. She was nervous, which wasn’t something she was often.

“That’s- I-” Barry stuttered, and she almost smiled at how nervous and flustered he sounded. She always loved riling him up. “I need to go.”

“What?” she asked, finally turning to look at him now. He was already up on his feet though and leaving. “Barry?” she asked, because she hadn’t been wrong, had she?

“I’ll be back later,” was his only response. She didn’t try to go after him. It wasn’t long before she was left alone in the forest she was now the protector of.

No, not alone.

Standing up, she headed off to go find where her brother had gotten off to. Barry said he’d be back, and so he would be. Until then, she had Taako.

They had a duty now, and she wasn’t going to let herself get distracted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a _massive_ request done for darkrystalsky, which was a lot of fun to work on! Ironically enough I have no actually seen the movie maleficent but they provided me with a huge outline for this fic, so with that in mind you definitely don't have to see the movie to understand this. Also, expect daily updates until this is done! And, since I haven't promoted it anywhere in a while, you can find me on tumblr [here!](http://kravkalackin.tumblr.com/)
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed~


	2. Chapter 2

There was something distracting Lup, but Taako figured they could deal with that later. Normally something bothering his sister came first, but this wasn’t normal circumstances.

The human kingdom had been causing trouble for a while now. At first Taako hadn’t been sure if it was actually happening more, or if he was only noticing it more. This was definitely an increase though. As their human friends got older and managed to get better connected jobs, they could confirm how bad it was getting.

Still, he hadn’t realized just how serious it had gotten. Things had been tense sure, and him and Lup had been growing in power in preparation of… something. The woods was good at letting you know when shit was about to go down if you paid attention to it.

Whatever they’d been preparing for, it wasn’t an army slowly starting to roll up near the border.

So, dealing with whatever was bothering Lup would have to wait. The thing with the kingdom of fae was that they didn’t have an army, but that didn’t seem to stop one from forming around Taako and Lup anyway. It wasn’t like word didn’t spread fast about the encroaching danger, and like fuck was anyone going to let it plow through them without a fight.

It was all happening fucking fast, and they didn’t have time to stop and think before they were standing at the border of their land, an army of fae and the woodlands behind them. In front of them was another army, the king they’d heard their human friends complaining about throughout the years safely back behind rows and rows of his men. Fucking coward, as far as Taako was concerned.

“Alright kemosabe! Here’s your chance, you turn around right now and take this little power fantasy of yours home and we won’t blast your ass to ribbons,” Taako shouted. He doubted it would work, but it was worth a shot. Best case scenario would be getting out of this without a battle.

“The king doesn’t take orders from a couple of pointy eared twinks!” he shouted, and Taako rolled his eyes. He saw Lup twirl her wand around in her hand before gripping it firmly and leveling it at the army.

“Don’t say we didn’t give you a choice,” she said, before throwing off a powerful blast.

For as fierce as the battle ended up being, it wasn’t very long. Maybe a couple hours. A couple fucking terrible hours for sure, spent slowly fighting their way through the king’s army. Behind them the fae fought to keep the humans from encroaching into their land, and from what Taako could tell were doing a pretty damn good job.

Not that he could tell much. His focus set on moving forward, and on Lup. They were back to back for most of it, never risking leaving each other’s side as they fought.

Taako was breathing hard by the time the king was finally in sight again. They were far from done, but Taako wanted this to be fucking over. He knew Lup must’ve felt the same way, saw the same opportunity. He didn’t notice them as they raise their wands, was barking useless orders at his scrambling soldiers.

Twin blasts of powerful magic shot from their wands, curling around each other through the air. The king only had a moment to turn towards it in shock before it hit him. Silence didn’t fall over the battlefield, there were too many too distracted for that, but there was a sudden stillness in the area around them.

Then some hire ups were scrambling to the king, and Taako could see them frantically picking up his charred body.

“Retreat!  _ Retreat!” _ they started shouting, and there was a moment of confusion before the human armies started falling back.

“Fuck yeah!” Taako shouted, a grin spread across his face.

“You will not have our home! Not now or ever!” Lup yelled after them, and Taako was still grinning in a goofy manner, despite the serious expression on his sister’s face.

“Nice one,” he said, holding up a hand for a high-five. Lup immediately gave him one, smiling brightly now as well.

“Think it sounded intimidating enough?” she asked, and Taako nodded.

“For sure, and if not, getting their asses handed to them certainly did the trick,” he said. They really had done a number to them, and Taako was pretty damn sure they wouldn’t have to deal with another battle like this again.

They’d be fucking idiots to try and mess with them after this.

——

Lucretia had always had ambitions. She didn’t always have a plan for how to achieve those ambitions, but she knew that she would. She needed to, so that she could make the world a better place for the people she cared about. For  _ everyone. _

Because of that, she had to take the opportunities as they came to her.

She never wanted to draw away from her friends, but she needed to be where she could have the best chance to do good. She couldn’t have people grow distrustful of her, the way she’d seen them do with Barry. They’d whisper whenever his back was turned, all sorts of rumors about where and what he got up to, about how he learned his magics and the danger that came with it.

He was still respected, because he was powerful, but he wasn’t trusted. She needed people to trust her.

And as much as it pained her, she had to take advantage of this opportunity.

There had been a battle at the border. Lucretia had heard inklings of it, had watched as the army formed. The king hadn’t been happy about the power that had been growing in the kingdom of fae and had sought to strike it down.

She couldn’t say she was entirely surprised when the army came back in failure.

She  _ was _ surprised when Magnus ran up to her later that same day, clearly in a panic.

“Lucretia! Luce, I was looking for you. I need- we need to talk, um, alone,” Magnus said, glancing around them. Without hesitation Lucretia nodded, pulling them both into a nearby study room.

“What wrong? Were you at the battle?” she asked, relief rushing through her when he shook his head. She hadn’t thought he’d been, but she wasn’t sure. She didn't know what she'd do if he had been, if something serious had happened to him. She'd had to draw away from the others, but Magnus had always been there for her.

“No, managed to get off with guarding the palace. Luce,  _ listen, _ the king’s dying. Apparently Taako and Lup did a fucking number on him at the border,” Magnus explained, and she could hear the pride in his voice at that. She couldn’t blame him, they both hated King Kalen, most people did.

“I’m not surprised,” she said, and Magnus nodded. Then the prideful look dropped into something serious.

“The king’s putting out a decree. If anyone can get the twins and bring them back for execution before he dies, he’ll make them his successor. Lucretia, you gotta go warn them,” he explained.

Lucretia nodded, a plan starting to form in her head.

“Go now, before word gets out and everyone tries to go after them, please,” he said, and Lucretia took a deep breath, steeling herself.

“Of course, I’ll be back soon.”

She didn’t go directly to the forest. She stopped by her room first, gathering up the supplies she needed, and then she headed out. She still managed to leave before the king’s men announced the official order for the twin’s heads.

It was easier to find them than she expected, considering the recent battle. She wouldn’t ever call them dumb, but they were confident. Cocky.

“Who’s-” Lup spun towards her at the sound of her making her way through the woods, wand already out. As soon as she saw her though she lowered it, grin spreading across her face. “Lucretia!”

“I’m so glad to see you’re both okay,” Lucretia said, and it was true.

“So that’s what it takes to get you to finally come visit? A whole goddamn battle, I see how it is,” Taako said, but he was smiling as well. She gratefully accepted the hug from Lup, giving them both an apologetic look as she pulled away.

“I’m sorry it’s been so long. I meant to come see you both sooner, but the time got away. Magnus said you two had defended the border against the king, and I had to come make sure you were both alright,” she explained. None of it was a lie, she had been genuinely worried.

“Shit, Mags wasn’t there, was he?” Taako asked, and Lucretia shook her head.

“No, thankfully he wasn’t dragged into it too,” she said before glancing around. “Why don’t we go somewhere we can talk? I don’t have a lot of time, but I brought some tea. I was hoping we could just take a moment to catch up,” she added.

They were both smiling brightly at her now, and Lup nodded.

“That sounds great Creesh,” she said, and Lucretia started following them further into the forest.

She told herself this was necessary. It would make everything better, and it would be over soon.

——

Taako woke up alone.

Nothing about that made sense.

For one, he didn’t remember falling asleep. He hadn’t been alone either. He’d been with Lup, and Lucretia. She’d finally come back to see them, and despite how long it had been once they started talking it felt like no time had passed at all. Taako wasn’t sure he noticed how much he’d missed Lucretia until she was back.

But he’d been awake, and it was after the battle. Lucretia had made them tea and they’d been talking. It had been fine and then-

And then everything got fuzzy.

The tea pot and cups were still there, and Taako grabbed the remains as he felt his blood run cold. Casting a spell, it wasn’t hard to identify the soporific mixed into the now cold tea. It would have been easy to notice, if either him or Lup had bothered to check.

They hadn’t though, because it was  _ Lucretia. _

Panic started to grip him as he realized Lup was gone. Lup was  _ gone. _

Scrambling to his feet, it didn’t take much effort to disguise himself as a human. His pride certainly didn’t like covering his looks, but this was too important.

Without a second thought, Taako started making his way to the kingdom of man.

He’d never spent much time there, it was much more common for their human friends to come visit them on their side. They were too noticeable among humans, and there weren’t a lot of places to hide like in the woods.

He didn’t need to know how to get around though. The place he was heading stuck out pretty well after all.

Rushing towards the castle, he tried not to bring too much attention to himself. He had to be careful. The disguise only did so much, he still looked suspicious, still had a look of panic on his face that was hard to conceal.

Taako found himself caring less and less about blending in as he overheard people in the streets talking. There were so many people out and about, more than Taako expected after the loss they’d just faced in the battle.

He could hear the whispers though, and they made his heart stop cold.

The pointy eared devil, burned at a pyre in front of the castle.

Taako gave up all pretense of trying to lurk and be sneaky at that point, running full force at the castle. When he started to reach crowds gathering around it didn’t matter, he pressed through them.

It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be. There had to be some trick, some mistake. Lucretia wouldn’t- she didn’t-

Taako fell to his knees in front of a large pyre, scorched black. There were only ashes at the bottom of it, some still smoldering slightly. His hands were shaking as he drug them through the ash, it still hot enough to leave blisters along his hands.

“Hey! Answer us!” someone was shouting, and probably had been for a while. Looking up from the ashes, Taako had to blink to see through unshed tears. There were guards surrounding him, demanding to know who he was, what he was doing, spears pointed at him.

Standing up, he let the disguise drop. He was sure that was what made those surrounding him gasp and not the enraged pain etched across his face.

Sending out a blast of force, Taako knocked most of the guards away from him. Several threw their spears, and he couldn’t even think to try and dodge them. Most of them were knocked off path by his power, but one managed to slash across his face. Taako let out a shout of pain, hand flying up to cup his cheek where the iron had cut. There was no doubt that it would scar, wounds made from iron never healed right.

He couldn’t give a single shit about that right now.

The guards were still knocked back, and Taako looked around, his eyes falling on the castle. He wasn’t surprised to see Lucretia, staring out through a window at him in horror.

“You’ll pay for this. You fucking  _ took her! You’ll pay for this!” _ he shouted, before setting off an explosive forth of magic as he left.

——

Taako wasn’t sure how much later it was. He knew it couldn’t have been long, even though it already felt like an eternity. Every moment now was that much longer he’d gone without Lup, and he didn’t know how he was supposed to process that. It didn’t make  _ sense. _

So, he had to stop thinking about it. He couldn’t focus on the fact that Lup was gone, but he couldn’t just forget either. He was reminded of it every time he looked down at the burns on his hands or in a mirror at the scar across his face.

He couldn't forget, so he had to focus on something else. He had to channel all the hurt and devastation into fucking rage because otherwise there’d be no way he could even function.

He told them he’d make her pay for taking Lup away. He’d make every single one of them who had a hand in this fucking suffered for what they did.

Taako was so fucking angry, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew he couldn’t storm in there and take out everyone himself. He wasn’t even sure if that was what he wanted to do. He wanted them to fucking  _ hurt _ like he was.

Whatever he was going to do though, he couldn’t do it alone. He’d never been alone before, and he wasn’t very keen on starting now.

He didn’t have a specific plan on how to fix that though. Not at first at least. He just knew he needed to know more. He needed some way of figuring out what was going on and what he was going to do.

He’d been skirting around the edge of the kingdom of man, trying to remain hidden in the thick trees. He couldn’t be seen, not right now. Taako figured there was probably an order out for his head too at this point.

Still, he found himself hovering around the edge of the kingdom, not sure what to do. He wasn’t surprised when he saw a couple of kids and their dog, kids tended to hang out too close to the border for their own good anyway. He knew that from experience.

Glancing through the trees, he could see a net on the ground, a large raven caught underneath it. The kids were laughing and throwing rocks at the panicked bird, the dog barking and looking a hair away from giving in and tearing into the thing.

Forming an idea, Taako wasn’t really in the mindset to think twice about these kinds of things. 

“Into a man,” he whispered, casting a quick but powerful spell at the bird. In an instant it started to transform, growing bigger, its wings getting longer and it’s legs growing out from underneath it. The beak flattened into a human mouth, the feathers disappeared and instead slick clothes just as black wrapped around him, long black hair falling around his face. The children only stopped to stare for a moment before shouting and running off, the dog following.

Once they were safely out of sight Taako started towards the not-a-bird-anymore. He managed to throw the net off of him finally, standing unsteadily to his feet. There was obvious confusion and maybe slight horror on his face as he looked around, his eyes finally falling on Taako.

“What have you done to my beautiful self?” he asked, sounding aghast. Taako scoffed, giving him a quick look over.

“I coulda just let them kill you my dude, would you have liked that?” he asked. He didn’t give an answer, which was about what Taako expected. “Besides, you’re still plenty beautiful, just different standards,” he added. 

“Well, you saved my life, so thank you, I suppose,” he said, still sounding pretty put upon about the whole transformation. “I take it there was a reason for this?” he asked, which good. He was smart as well as pretty.

“There is. You got a name thug?” Taako asked.

“Kravitz,” he said, and Taako nodded.

“Alright, well Krav. I need some wings and some eyes in places I can’t go to, and it’s be fucking fantastic if you could led me a hand with that,” he said. Kravitz seemed to think it over before nodding.

“I suppose that would be agreeable,” he said. Taako nodded, a grim and determined expression on his face.

This would work. He’d make them pay for taking  _ everything _ from him.

———

Taako had sent Kravitz to keep an eye on the castle. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be watching out for, but Taako supposed it hadn’t been as long as he’d expected. Maybe only a week or two.

It depended on how long it took for the old king to finally die from his wounds, and how long it would take to set up a proper coronation. Either way, Kravitz had managed to witness the whole thing, perched up on a spire of the castle in his raven form.

Taako listened as he detailed the ceremony. Apparently it had been rather simple and short. The woman Taako identified as Lucretia had been crowned in front of a large crowd and gave a short speech about making this world and kingdom better for everyone in it.

There’d been other people up with her. Most Taako didn’t recognize from Kravitz’s descriptions. Two that sounded like Magnus and a distraught, distracted Barry, who rushed off almost immediately after the ceremony.

There wasn’t a single mention of Lup or the burning or the betrayal that led Lucretia to this position. No one seemed to care about that at all. Taako couldn't say he was too surprised. He'd thought they'd found humans who weren't selfish, who weren't like the stories. Apparently that had all been a trick.

As soon as Kravitz finished explaining he shifted back into a raven, jumping up to perch on Taako’s shoulder.

Taako didn’t know if there’d ever been a king in the kingdom of fae. Lup had thought it might have been a misnomer by the humans, or it had happened so far in the past that it didn’t matter anymore. Taako figured she was probably right, but just because there hadn't been one in the past didn’t mean there couldn’t be one now.

Him and Lup had  _ tried _ to just protect.

If Lucretia was going to rule no matter the cost, then he could too.

The ruins of the castle were so run down that it was hard to tell that they were there at all. Stone walls and towers worn away by the centuries and covered with vines and thick plant growth. Most people would write the place off as a complete lost cause, too damaged by time to be of any use.

Taako was much more skilled at magic than most people.

Touching the closest crumbling stone wall, it began to grow, shifting into a bright crystal. It spread out, new patches of pink tourmaline starting and growing from every step he took as he made his way through the ruined grounds. At his will a castle formed up around him, large and shiny and eye catching.

There was no way to ignore the sight, Taako made sure it was big enough and dramatic enough that no one could write it off.

He knew without a doubt that Lucretia would be able to see the sight from her  _ own  _ new palace. He knew she would know exactly who would make such a castle, that he was the only one  _ left _ in the kingdom of fae to even have that kind of power.

She wouldn’t be able to ignore this. He was not going to let her pretend that none of this happened. As long as she lived in that castle of hers she would get to look out every day and see his bright, shimmering palace as a reminder.

It was her fault that Lup was gone.

It was her fault that Taako was left alone, that he wasn’t going to just protect anymore.

He was going to be a king, and it was all her fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't have much to say here besides thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed~


	3. Chapter 3

Kravitz really did care about Taako, as strange and discombobulating as their first meeting had been.

Despite that, he was starting to think that maybe he shouldn’t tell Taako everything that happened at the palace.

“A kid huh? A  _ kid? _ Can’t say I’m surprise her and Mags didn’t invite cha’ boy to the wedding, but- never took Luce for the mom type. Guess she needs  _ someone _ to take the throne after her, since she worked  _ oh so hard _ to get it,” Taako ranted, pacing around the large throne room. It was empty besides the two of them, which was usually the case. There weren’t a lot of people or fae Taako was very keen on inviting in.

“I mean, considering they burned your sister I can understand them not inviting you to the christening too,” Kravitz said. Taako had told him he wasn’t too great at putting things gently yet, and he was probably right.

“Well, when you put it like  _ that,”  _ Taako said, sarcasm clear. Kravitz shrugged, still getting used to this whole person form. He preferred his original and could change when he wanted, but this one was more conducive to talking. “So, who  _ is _ invited? Just a bunch of stuffy human dicks, all trying to suck up to some brat that can’t even eat by itself yet?” he asked.

“I guess mostly? I didn’t exactly see a guest list. There were just people out announcing in front of the castle that everyone was invited,” Kravitz said, and Taako scoffed at that. “I guess there were some specific people? I know there was a lot of buzz about then inviting some fae, as a show of peace apparently,” he added. Kravitz regretted saying it when Taako froze at that.

“What fae? Did you get any specific names?” he asked, his voice cold.

“Um, Merle I think? And uh, there was another, Daren? Drew?”

“Davenport?” Taako supplied, and Kravitz snapped his fingers, nodding.

“That was it. Is it- do you know them?” he asked, and Taako just nodded. "There were others too, but I want to say those were the only two specifically sought out,” he said. Taako nodded again, but he didn’t seem to be paying too much attention. Even though he wasn’t running around ranting anymore it was obvious how angry he still was. Possibly even more angry than he'd been before.

“Alright. Cool.  _ Cool. _ When this thing happening babe? I got time to put my hair up or are we leaving now?” he asked, looking like he was about to set an entire village on fire.

“Taako, please I don’t know if you should- you might do something you regret,” Kravitz tried. Taako didn’t seem intent on listening to him though.

_ “When _ is it happening, my guy?” Taako asked again, and Kravitz sighed.

“We should leave soon, if we want to get there in time,” he relented, and some of the rage boiling inside of Taako seemed to cool at that. “Just, please try not to do anything dangerous,” he added, before shifting back into a bird and jumping up onto Taako’s shoulder.

“No promises.”

—

Lucretia was trying to enjoy this day.

It wasn’t perfect, and she’d far from managed to fix everything yet. She was trying to be positive though, despite how long it’d been. A little over a year now, and they still hadn’t managed to make much progress.

She could understand why Barry wasn’t here. He’d been consumed in his work since she appointed him the castle magician. It was rare to see him outside of the tower he’d locked himself away in, constantly researching. She’d go to visit him when she could, but there was always so much to do with ruling the country.

Lately too, she’d been distracted with other things. Barry assured her it was fine, to take care of herself and not to worry about it. He’d fix this.

Still, Lucretia wished there was some way she could help more. She hated thinking of Barry slaving away alone in that tower.

Alone, except for the phoenix holed up in there with him, that was.

She tried to push that out of her mind for today though. It was a good day. Magnus was beaming with pride beside her, talking animatedly with every person who came up to see Angus. Lucretia would smile and thank them genuinely for whatever gift they brought. 

Angus lay in a crib that Magnus had built in front of them. He would sometimes look up interested at the people who came in or at the gifts they offered, but otherwise he was still too young to pay much attention.

Lucretia’s smile widened even more when she saw Merle and Davenport walking up. She could tell there was still unease in the majority of the people here at having those from the kingdom of Fae around, but she ignored it. She had to set an example and show that they could live in peace, and this was only the first step.

“I’m so glad you two managed to come,” she said, trying to sound as sincere as she felt.

“Of course we did Luce,” Merle said, Davenport nodding. “So this is the kid huh? Good for you,” he added, looking into the crib. “We’re not supposed to bring gifts to these things, are we?"

“Yes we are Merle,” Davenport said, rolling his eyes despite the fond smile on his face. “For my gift, may you always be able to find your way home, Angus,” he added, waving a hand over the crib.

“Oh right, magic. May you always be able to see the truth kiddo.” Merle said, doing a similar hand motion over the crib.

“Merle, you  _ always _ give truth,” Davenport complained, and Merle just grinned wider.

“What? It’s useful!” he insisted.

“Thank you both, it means so much,” Lucretia said, cutting into their bickering. They didn’t seem bothered any, both smiling.

“Don’t mention it,” Merle said, before the two of them moved off to let the next people in. It continued like that, people and some fae coming in, blessing her and Magnus on their child, and offering gifts where they could. It was starting to wind down, and Lucretia could almost ignore the glaring absences around them.

Then, there was a loud crack in the center of the ballroom. Several people shouted, running away as a pink smoke started forming and swirling around. Lucretia could feel her heart drop as that smoke started to dissipate.

“What’s up! I’m here, I’m queer and I’m ready to party!”

——

Never let it be said that Taako didn’t know how to crash a party.

It’d been over a year since he last saw any of them. He thought that maybe in that time some of his rage might have cooled, that he’d see Lucretia and Magnus again and remember what things were like before everything had gone down. That he might miss all of that.

He saw their shocked and worried faces as he appeared, saw the way the guards instantly shifted to try and stand between him and them.

Any good will that might have been there in the past was wiped away in an instant. All he felt inside was a rage hotter than the flames they used to take away Lup.

“I- Taako, what are you- why are you here?” Lucretia asked, clearly taking a moment to find her words. It was unusual for her, but Taako would hope that after everything she’d have to think twice before speaking.

“Well, a little birdy told me there was a big old celebration going down. I heard fae were invited, a  _ show of peace,” _ he said, his voice dipping cold and hard. He turned to where Davenport and Merle were standing, and they both looked worried. Concerned. Like  _ he _ was the one who did something wrong. “See? It’s starting to feel like a downright reunion up in here.”

“Taako, it’s-” Davenport started, frowning as he tried to speak. “We just- we figured you wouldn’t  _ want _ to be here,” he said, and Taako’s surprised expression was anything but sincere.

“What? Why  _ wouldn’t _ I want to be here?” he asked, his question all mocking innocence. He turned back towards where Lucretia and Magnus were standing. They looked worried and pained, but it wasn’t enough. They hadn’t even began to suffer enough. “Why  _ wouldn’t _ I want to be here with the people who had my sister  _ burned? _ The people we fucking  _ trusted,” _ he was shouting now.

“Taako, please! Just listen, it wasn’t-” Lucretia started to speak, but Taako pulled at a wand, aiming it at her. More guards leveled their weapons at him, but no one dare try anything.

“You think I’m going to listen to you? After what you did?” he asked, disbelief clear in his voice. His eyes dipped down to the crib that sit in front of them. “So, it’s customary to bring gifts to these things, huh?” he asked, his voice flat.

“Taako, no,” Magnus said, but he ignored him. They’d all sat by and let it happen, he’d went and fucking married Lucretia afterwards. For all Taako knew, he was plotting with her the whole goddamn time. Those two had drawn away first, they should have seen this coming.

“You always loved reading, huh Luce? I’m sure you’re planning on passing that down on your kid, make em real smart so they can take on the throne you worked  _ oh so hard _ to get, right?” he said, already channeling the workings of a curse. He’d never cursed someone before, not like this.

“Too bad for this kid, that just ain’t in the cards for him. Before his, oh let’s go with elevenths birthday, he’ll cut himself on the page of a book and die. One fucking nasty paper cut, am I right?” 

There were gasps and shock from the people around them, an Lucretia and Magnus both looked terrified. Devastated.

With another crack of power, Taako left.

Hopefully  _ that _ would be enough. Hopefully with this he’d be in a little less pain now. He’d avenged Lup. Once they knew what it was like to have someone you fucking cared about more than anything ripped away from you by someone you used to trust.

He really fucked hoped this would fix it, because right now he just felt even worse.

As soon as they were back at the castle Kravitz hopped off of his shoulder, back in his human form before his feet touched the ground.

“Please tell me none of that was serious,” he said.

“Dead serious bubula,” Taako answered simply.

“Taako, you can’t do that to a  _ child. _ They had nothing to do with it,” Kravitz protested. Taako scoffed, walking around him towards his throne. His steps echoed loudly on the crystal floor.

“Lup had nothing to do with Lucretia’s fucking thirst for power! She’s the one who decided to sacrifice people first,” he argued. This was all Lucretia’s fault, he was just giving her a taste of her own medicine. It wasn’t his fault she decided to act like everything was fine, have a kid and invite people to its damn birthday party as a ‘show of peace.’

“So you want to be just as bad as her then?” Kravitz pressed, clearly unhappy with all of this.

“No, I’m  _ not. _ It’s just- she fucking-” Taako stumbled over his words, letting out a noise of frustration before slumping down on his throne. “They  _ deserve _ to hurt,” he muttered, his voice quieter and more raw with pain than he meant.

Taako didn’t bother moving when he heard Kravitz walking towards him, let Kravitz wrap am arm around his shoulders. He didn’t know why the dude bothered sticking around him, honestly. It wasn’t like he couldn’t fly away if he really wanted to. Sure Taako had saved his life, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t paid that debt back a while ago.

Pulling away, Taako walked to a large window looking out towards the kingdom of Humans. With a scowl, he raised a hand up and let his rage fuel more powerful magic. He watched as huge crystals grew up out of the ground, forming a large and jagged wall along the border. He could feel Kravitz’s eyes still on him, still watching with concern.

“There,” Taako said after a moment. “Now there’s nothing left to do but see this through.”

——

Lucretia had never meant for any of this to happen.

There wasn’t anything she could do about it now though. No, now she just had to deal with the consequences and prepare what she could.

She couldn’t let Taako’s curse come to fruition. A part of her couldn’t believe that Taako would put something so cruel onto a child, but she’d seen the rage in his eyes when he looked at her. She couldn’t deny the pain she caused him.

She could not let him take that pain out on Angus though, so she had to do something.

After the scene Taako had made, no one argued with her when she coldly sent out the order for all of the books in the kingdom to be gathered and burned. Or, if they tried to argue, she wouldn’t hear it. She just watched as they fulfilled her orders, stacking books up high in front of the palace and burning them, right in the same place Lup had burned.

With every book that came to her, Lucretia took one copy. Just one. She couldn’t deny that Taako knew her well, and the idea of wiping out so much information completely. She couldn’t do it. So she took one copy each and locked them in the tower. She put all of the printing machines up there as well, so that no new books could be made.

It was the safest place to keep them where Angus couldn’t get. But these precautions weren’t enough. They would hopefully be enough to protect against the curse, but she wasn’t going to let someone try to hurt Angus because of her position.

She couldn’t risk Taako coming after him again in the event that his curse failed.

“I know this is a big ask but I’m begging you. I don’t know who else I can trust with this,” she said, holding Angus bundled up close to her. Merle and Davenport both looked pretty uneasy with the request, glancing at each other and back to her again.

“It’s just, you got all these guards here and that’s probably a lot safer than he’d be with us,” Merle said, but Lucretia shook her head.

“Taako and anyone else who’d want to do harm to him knows exactly where he is if he stays here. It’s too big of a risk,” she said, hoping that they would understand.

“Are you sure about this?” Davenport asked, and Lucretia nodded.

“Yes, please. Take him out to the country, raise him as a normal boy. No one can know who he really is, don’t even let  _ him _ know. It’s the only way to be sure he’ll be safe,” she said. They both still looked uncertain, but Lucretia felt a rush of relief pass through her when Davenport nodded.

“We’ll do our best. Just, try to be careful Luce, and don’t escalate with the kingdom of fae. Pretty sure there were a lot of people not too happy with the stunt Taako pulled there,” Merle said, and Lucretia nodded. She turned to look out the window, at the huge crystal wall now separating the two kingdoms.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I don’t plan to let this go any further than it already has,” she said, before carefully handing Angus over to them. It pained her, but at least this way she knew he would be safe.

Or at least, it was the best she could do.

——

Taako had to say, he didn’t expect the lengths that Lucretia went through to get around his curse. The book burning was one thing, he was surprised she actually managed to go through with that.

He was even more surprised when Kravitz flew back over the wall one day and told him that the prince was gone. No one knew where to, or at least no one who knew would speak of it. It was frustrating, because he needed to see this through. He fucking did it so he had to follow it to the end.

Thankfully, about a week later Kravitz came back again, this time with news about the kid’s whereabouts. He was off in some small cottage in the country, not too far from the crystal wall Taako had erected.

He assured Kravitz it wasn’t that he didn’t trust him to have found the right kid, even as Taako was pulling on a black cloak and throwing the hood up. He just needed to see for himself, see what set up Lucretia had done. He wasn’t going to do anything else to the brat, the whole point of this was to make Lucretia suffer. He wasn’t gonna torture a kid, he just needed to make sure his curse was going to work.

It wasn’t any problem creating an opening for himself in the crystal wall, and Kravitz guided him through the woods until eventually they happened upon a small home. Definitely more of a cottage or a cabin than anything, pretty off the beaten path. Taako used magic to draw the shadows around him a little more, make him that much harder to notice.

Slinking up to the house, he peaked into a window, and to be honest he wasn’t entirely shocked seeing who was inside.

He couldn’t blame Lucretia for trusting Merle and Davenport, they were too forgiving and loyal to turn their back on her. Or at least, to turn down watching after her kid. That said, Taako also wasn’t surprised to see the place an absolute mess. Things thrown around in an obvious attempt to find other things, dishes stacked up in the kitchen, the whole nine yards.

“I swear we had more somewhere,” Merle said, rummaging through the fridge.

“No, no that’s the last bottle. Merle I  _ checked _ that’s definitely the last bottle, we need to go out and get more,” Davenport said, and from the sound of it they’d probably been having this conversation for a while.

“Are we sure they only drink milk? We can’t just like, give the kid some orange juice? It’s good for you,” Merle said, and even from his position hiding behind the window Taako could tell that Davenport was rolling his eyes.

"No, we can't give him orange juice Merle. He's still too young," he said.

“But are you  _ sure?” _ Merle asked, and Davenport seemed to hesitate some at that.

“I mean- I don’t  _ know _ it’s just- look, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said, and Merle shrugged, closing the fridge.

“Yeah alright, let’s go grab some supplies for the kid. Anything else we need?” Merle asked, heading over and grabbing a coat.

“More diapers.”

“We already have plenty of diapers,” Merle insisted, but Davenport shook his head.

“I’m not risking running out of diapers,” he said. Taako waited another few moments until they left. Neither of them had actually thought to bring the kid with them. That wasn’t too surprising, they couple both be pretty damn absentminded at times.

Pushing the window open, Taako peaked down at where the kid was resting in a crib. Despite how clear it was that neither Dav nor Merle knew fuck all about how to take care of a kid, he seemed to be doing alright. He wasn’t asleep, looking up at Taako as he stuck his head through a window.

“Ugh, it’s so ugly I could almost feel sorry for it,” Taako said, mostly talking to Kravitz who was still resting on his shoulder. In response though the kid started giggling, and Taako rolled his eyes. “I was insulting you,” he said, knowing full well the baby couldn’t actually understand what he was saying.

Taking another glance at the messy house, Taako sighed. With a flick of his wand, he started setting some things back in place and cleaning the dishes. Merle and Davenport were disasters and didn’t know how to raise a kid, which wasn’t any of his business. Still, he guessed a part of him still cared about those two.

Once that was done, Taako took one last look down at the kid before leaving. It was just a favor for some old friends, and he was only coming here to make sure he finished what he started.

That was the only reason he kept coming back too. He hadn’t specified an actual date when the kid would fall under his curse, just before he turned eleven. It seemed unlikely while he was out in the country like this with no books in sight, but magic has a way of working itself out.

Plus, it wasn’t like Taako had much else to do. He certainly didn’t have anyone but Kravitz to hang out with. No one could blame him for getting bored and taking the time to come see what was going on with his curse.

He swore though, there wouldn’t even be a chance for his curse to take effect with how Merle and Davenport were doing. They were trying their best for sure, but neither of them knew how to take care of a kid.

They didn’t question too much when they’d come back to the house miraculously clean though. Or when they found some food neither of them had cooked in the fridge.

Of course just as often Taako would steal the ship in a bottle Davenport was working on, or cast a spell so that a gust of wind would knock Merle’s hat off repeatedly whenever he was working in the garden.

The kid would always laugh when it happened, and Taako couldn’t blame him for that. It was pretty damn hilarious after all.

Taako figured he’d have to wait a while for his curse to take effect, but it sure did seem like the kid was growing up fast. It was definitely amusing watching Merle and Davenport struggle to keep a hold on him once the brat started walking.

There were a couple times where the kid started wandering off into the woods around his house, and Taako would have to sigh and cast a spell for some of the trees to move and the branches carefully pick him up and turn him back around.

One day Taako showed up, finding Merle and Davenport in a panic. A quick glance showed that Angus was nowhere to be found, and Taako rolled his eyes, starting off to find the kid.

It didn’t take long to, which was probably a good thing. Kid was walking now, or well, toddling. He was also next to a sharp ledge, a very rocky fall seeming pretty inevitable.

Instead of casting magic, Taako just walked up and grabbed the brat.

“The fuck do you think you’re going?” he said, turning the kid around to face him. He laughed, immediately trying to reach out and touch his face, but Taako was holding him too far out. “You’re gonna get yourself killed, and it ain’t supposed to happen this way,” he said, starting to walk back towards the cottage with him in tow. Krav was standing on his shoulder, and he let out a very amused sound.

Angus babbled some more, trying to grab the bird now.

“Stop giving me that look or I’ll let the kid play with your wings,” Taako said, speaking to Kravitz. He was still giving him a look, but Taako ignored it.

As soon as they were close enough to the house Taako put the kid down and pushed him off in the direction of the house, hiding off in the underbrush again. He only stuck around until he saw Merle and Davenport had found the brat, and then he started heading back to his kingdom.

Kravitz was still giving him a look, and Taako huffed in annoyance.

“I’m just making sure this happens the right way, don’t get any fucking ideas,” he insisted. Kravitz didn’t say anything, since he was a bird, and Taako let himself believe that was agreement.

It was true after all. He told himself that was the only reason he cared about any of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over halfway there now! As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed~


	4. Chapter 4

Angus knew that he wasn’t supposed to go near the wall. It was something Mr. Merle and Mr. Davenport had stressed to him a lot while growing up. That it was dangerous and things that would want to hurt him lurked around there and to stay near the cottage.

Angus rarely stayed near the cottage. He didn’t mean to disobey them so much, but he got bored pretty easily. It wasn't all that hard to run off without them noticing too. It wasn’t that they were inattentive, but things tended to work in his favor with that. A strange wind or a branch in just the right position to distract them long enough for him to slip away.

He had stayed away from the wall for a long time though. They’d been so concerned about it, he figured there was probably some truth to the danger they were always warning him about.

He was heading to the wall today though. He’d slipped away from Merle and Davenport again, but this time there wasn’t any helpful trick. Merle had simply been napping and Davenport was working in his study. So Angus had taken the opportunity to sneak out of the house and start off in the direction of the giant shimmering pink wall. There wasn’t any issue finding his way towards it, since it was large enough to see through the top of the trees.

Even though he’d always been warned about the forest, Angus had never actually felt in danger in them. This time wasn’t any different, and he was almost to the wall when he heard the sound of footsteps coming close. He didn’t relax when he saw a few guards walking up towards him. He never saw a lot of people out here, and he figured these were people who were watching the boarder.

“What are you doing out here kid?” the lead one asked as they got close. Angus smiled, trying not to look suspicious.

“I’m just taking a walk sirs,” he said happily. He watched as the men glanced at each other, and Angus would say that they didn’t seem suspicious of him, but he still didn’t trust them.

“Well, this is a pretty dangerous place to walk for a little kid,” the first one spoke again.

“Oh, I didn’t realize that sir, I’ll start heading home then,” Angus lied. He figured once he was away from these guards he could continue back towards the wall. 

“Now, why don’t you tell us where you live and we’ll walk you back,” the main one said, and Angus saw him glance down at the small bag he had at his side. There wasn’t a lot in it, just some snacks he’d brought with him and a couple of his favorite little trinkets. “For a price, of course, we’re very busy.”

“Um, thank you sir but I don’t need help getting back home,” he said, taking a step back. It was true too, even if he really didn’t trust these guys. He knew how to get home, he’d never had a problem getting lost in the woods.

“Come on now kid, don’t make a fuss about this,” the guard said, starting to walk towards him now.

He didn’t get very far before stopping, looking around like he heard something. Angus heard it too, and no one had to wonder for very long before a large, growling wolf shot out of the bushes. It stood between him and the guards, snarling at them.

Angus took the distraction to run into the nearby underbrush, peaking out to watch. There was a terrifying moment where he was sure the guards were going to attack the wolf (most kids would probably be afraid of the wolf attacking the guards). Thankfully when the wolf lunged at them it was enough to break their resolve, the guards turning and running.

Once the men were gone it was quiet, and Angus saw the wolf give one last look around before taking off. Without thinking twice he followed after it, and Angus wasn’t surprised when it went straight to the wall.

He also wasn’t surprised to see someone waiting there, a grumpy expression on their face. It wasn’t a human face, but that didn’t bother Angus any.

Without saying a word to the wolf the fae man turned towards the sheer crystal wall, and when he pressed his hand up against it a large opening formed. The two walked through, and as soon as it seemed like they were far enough away not to notice Angus ran in as well, immediately hiding in the underbrush again. As he watched, the wolf transformed into a tall, handsome looking man.

That one, at least, was a little surprising.

“Alright, let’s not do that one again,” the former wolf said.

“Why not? It worked, didn’t it?”

“I don’t  _ want _ to be a wolf. They’re dirty and all low to the ground and have fleas,” the man complained.

“You’re not going to get fleas for being a wolf for five minutes,” the fae argued. Angus knew that it was rude to interrupt, but without thinking twice he made his way out of his hiding spot.

“Hello! Thank you for saving me!” he said, excited. The fae jolted at his voice, spinning towards him. He seemed to relax somewhat what he saw him, but still looked nervous.

“The fuck are you doing here kid?” he asked, watching Angus with suspicion.

“I wanted to say thank you,” Angus said, because it was true. It still didn’t seem like either of them trusted him much right now. Or maybe trusted wasn't the right word, but they were definitely nervous about something.

“You’re not afraid?” he asked, and Angus shook his head.

“No, you’re the one who’s been watching me, right?” Angus asked, and he could a look of surprise pass over the fae’s face. He didn’t deny it though, and Angus knew he was right so he kept speaking.

“You are! You stay hidden most of the time but you’ve been watching after me since I was little, right? I know you like to play tricks on Mr. Merle and Mr. Davenport too,” he said, smiling widely now. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for so long! I’ve really wanted to come over to the kingdom of fae too! It’s so nice to actually meet you!” he said, and with that Angus started moving towards him. He meant to give him a hug, but as he took a step his body suddenly felt really heavy, and his eyes were closing.

The last thing he felt was the fae catching him before he fell asleep.

——

Magnus had never meant for any of this to happen.

He had no idea how it has spiraled so fast or how it had been so long. He wanted to believe that it was all for the best, but he didn’t know who he could trust anymore. He didn’t know if he could trust Lucretia, if what they’d done was right. They were trying to make the world a better place, to make it so that the strife between the two kingdoms would end.

It was only worse now though, with Taako blocking the whole kingdom off. He couldn’t blame him for that, even if he couldn’t accept the repercussions he’d taken.

Magnus still had no idea where Angus was. Lucretia assured him he was somewhere safe, but it didn’t seem like anywhere was safe anymore. How could they even be sure of that too, with Taako’s curse?

There wasn’t anything Magnus could do, he didn’t know how to fix any of this. He hadn’t left the castle in a while, because with Angus gone he couldn’t be sure that Taako wouldn’t try to extract his revenge in some other way.

He couldn’t stand to fight him though. Even after everything, he still considered him his friend. He knew how losing Lup must have absolutely crushed him, and Lup…

Magnus was knocked out his thoughts by the sound of footfalls and hushed voices. He’d been wandering around the castle, lost in thought. It was something he did often, but he didn’t usually end up around Barry’s tower. He hadn’t seen much of Barry in a long time. He was consumed by some sort of work, but Magnus hadn’t paid much thought to what that work could be.

Creeping up the stairs, he could start to hear them a bit more clearly. It was Barry, which was unsurprising, and also Lucretia.

“-trying Lucretia, I am but there’s just, I don’t know what else to  _ do,” _ Barry said as Magnus pressed his ear to the door.

“There has to be something else. There’s no sign of improvement at all?” Lucretia asked.

“No, it’s- I almost got her talking for a bit, but all she could say was my name, and the spell wore off after only a couple of minutes.”

“But she’s still in there then. It’s clear that Lup can still understand us, at least,” Lucretia said, and Magnus jolted up at that. Without thinking twice he rushed in.

“What’s going on?” he asked, clearly surprising the two by his sudden entrance.

“Magnus, what are you-” Lucretia started to ask, but she paused as he looked around the room. There were more books in here than Magnus had seen in a decade, stacked high. On top of one of the stacks was a huge, majestic bird with a long tail and bright red and orange feathers. It was staring right at him, seemingly also in surprise.

“I heard you guys talking about Lup. What’s going on? What’s that bird?” he asked, and both Barry and Lucretia had nervous looks on their faces. “Please, I know you guys have been keeping secrets, but I need to know. What’s happening?” he practically begged.

“It’s a phoenix,” Barry said.

“It’s- the day Lup was burned, it wasn’t- I never meant for her to get hurt. I had- before they took her in, I asked Barry to cast a spell on her, so that she would survive,” Lucretia began explaining. The idea nearly made Magnus perk up, but he quickly remembered how things had gone.

“But she didn’t,” he said, and Lucretia shook her head.

“No, but the next day, this phoenix rose from the ashes of the site,” she said.

“She understands us. She’s still, I  _ know _ she’s still in there. I just haven’t been able to figure out a way to turn her back yet,” Barry said. Magnus stared in shock, slowly taking it all in.

“I’m so, so sorry for having to keep this from you,” Lucretia said. Magnus nodded, walking across the room and carefully petting the bird.

“Don’t worry Lup, we’ll figure out a way to get you back to normal.”

—

When Angus woke up, he was back in his bed. Taking a quick glance out the window, it seemed to be early morning. So he must have slept through the night.

Quietly getting out of bed, he checked in on Merle’s and Davenport’s room. It looked like they were both asleep as well. Knowing them though, Mr. Davenport would probably be up pretty soon, he usually woke up early.

Angus knew that it hadn’t been a dream. He remembered it all too clearly, he knew it had been real.

Not wasting any time, he didn’t want Davenport or Merle to stop him once they woke up. He headed back out, taking the same trail he had the day before. Thankfully he didn’t run into anymore soldiers this time, and the air was still that early morning chilly once he reached the large pink wall.

There was no opening this time, but Angus had expected that. He didn’t know how he was supposed to get though it, but he figured there  _ had _ to be some way.

Walking up to it, Angus ran a hand down along the cool crystal as he tried to think. His thoughts were interrupted by the wall opening up, a small circular path forming in the stone the same as it had for the fae. Grinning brightly, Angus rushed in.

He was only a little nervous when the passageway closed behind him as soon as he was through.

Well, that was fine. He’d been hoping to stay here a bit longer than last time anyway. Doing a quick look around, it wasn’t hard to spot the top of the tall crystalline castle off in the distance. Having a pretty solid feeling, Angus headed off towards it.

It didn’t take long for him to reach it. Once he was there he found himself standing outside, looking up at the large stoic palace. Pink wasn’t exactly the scariest color, but it still managed to make an imposing sight.

Before Angus could really decide what he was actually  _ doing _ there, a large black crow flew down through one of the windows and landed in front of him. Then in an instant it started shifting in a familiar way, and the man who’d been with the fae from before was standing in front of him.

“Oh, hello there sir! I didn’t recognize you as a bird,” he said brightly. The man sighed, seeming a little unsure of what to do about him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, not sounding angry but more confused about how he’d gotten here at all.

“I wanted to see the fae guy you were with before. He lives here, doesn’t he?” Angus asked. He could see the debate on what to do running across his face before he sighed once again.

“Yeah, alright since you’re already here. Come, Taako’s this way,” he said. Angus was beaming as he followed the man inside. The castle was large and empty to the point of feeling a little cavernous. Definitely pretty lonely.

Eventually they reached a sort of throne room, and Angus saw a frown form on Taako’s face as soon as he saw him.

“Krav, what the fuck?” he asked, clearing gesturing to Angus.

“He was just waiting outside okay? I couldn’t just  _ leave _ him out there,” the man, Kravitz said. Taako huffed, slumping into his throne some.

“I mean, you  _ could,”  _ he grumbled, before finally turning his attention over to Angus. “The fuck are you doing here kid?” he asked, trying to sound angry. Angus could tell that he wasn’t actually as mad as he was pretending.

“I already said, I wanted to talk to you. You didn’t give me much of a chance last time though,” Angus said, and the fae slowly ran a hand down his face, letting out a long noise of frustration.

“Can’t fucking believe I’m going along with this bullshit.”

——

Taako didn’t know how it fucking escalated like this.

Angus kept coming back to the kingdom of fae. There was no reason why he should, and at first Taako tried to ignore him. He’d never meant to actually interact with the kid after all. He was only watching him so that his plan would go through. That was it.

Fuck if this kid wasn’t persistent as fuck though. Plus, there wasn’t all that much to distract himself with when the kid was constantly following him around and asking what he was doing. Taako supposed the attention wasn’t that bad, even if he told himself over and over again that he didn’t care for the source of it.

He was getting older, so Taako told himself that he’d only have to deal with this for a little bit longer. Might as well just put up with the brat until it was over.

So he started answering Angus’s questions and letting him chill out in his palace. Kid seemed to have no idea that he was supposed to grow up in his own castle, and Taako wasn’t intending on filling him in on that fact.

Taako wasn’t sure how he started telling the kid stories. At first he was just answering questions, shit Angus wanted to know about the kingdom of fae and things like that. When he started asking about history shit at first Taako had shrugged and said he didn’t know whenever it was something he hadn’t heard about. After a bit though he’d started making up his own versions, and Angus could tell every time that they were fake. He seemed to enjoy them though, and then it escalated from there.

Angus couldn’t read, which wasn’t a surprise. Taako figured he wouldn’t be able to. It wasn’t much trouble to grab a random book and read it out loud for the kid every so often.

Taako told himself he wasn’t purposefully keeping Angus away from the book when they read. He just didn’t want some fucking brat all over him.

He didn’t care about Angus. He didn’t.  _ He didn’t. _

Until suddenly, he guessed he did.

Taako didn’t constantly watch the kid while he was wandering around his castle. If he got lost or hurt it was his own fault, Taako told him enough times not to come there. This was one of the times Angus had wandered off, and that was fine.

Taako only looked up when he heard Angus running down the halls and calling his name. Not in any sort of panic, kid just sounded excited. He got excited by basically everything, it wasn’t new.

What was new was Taako feeling his heart drop out into his stomach and panic grip him when Angus burst into the room.

“Sir, sir I found this book and it looks really interesting, I mean I can’t understand it but do you think you could-” Angus started to ask. Before he could finish his sentence Taako was across the room and snatching the book out of his hands.

“What the fuck are you  _ doing?”  _ he snapped, barely resisting the urge to look Angus’s hands over for cuts. There weren't any, he wouldn’t be standing still if he had.

“I- I was just… wondering if you could read it to me?” Angus asked, clearly confused by the outburst. Which of course. Of course he was confused. He didn’t know about any of this.

Fuck.

He didn’t even  _ know. _

“Yeah, yeah sure thing pumpkin,” Taako said, holding the book close so Angus couldn’t touch it. As he read, Taako desperately tried to wrack his mind for some way to reverse this curse. He couldn’t go through with it anymore.

Angus didn’t deserve it.

——

The next few times Angus comes over Taako carefully waited for an opportunity. It wasn’t until one day, when Angus ended up falling asleep in the middle of a story that he got a chance to try.

Carefully, Taako held his wand out towards the boy, ignoring the hopeful look from Kravitz across the room, and attempted to dispel the curse.

He felt his face fall when he could tell with certainty that it’d had no effect.

“What happened?” Kravitz asked, clearly able to see the less than stoked look on Taako’s face. He’d been relieved but not at all surprised when Taako had come to him and explained that they needed to stop the curse. That was annoying as fuck, but Taako guessed it had been a little obvious.

“It didn’t work.”

“What do you mean it didn’t work? You did it right, so can’t you just like, undo it?” he asked, and Taako let out a hallow laugh at that. He fucking wished it was that simple.

“I was so fucking mad. God, Krav I was so pissed, I didn’t fucking care  _ who _ got hurt as long as someone did. I’m still- I want them to pay, but it’s not… like that, anymore. I don’t think I have enough power to overwrite it,” he said, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt.

“Then what do we do?” Kravitz asked. Taako took a deep breath, trying to clear his head. He could fix this. There had to be a way for him to fix this.

It took a bit of research, but eventually Taako found something. He couldn’t dispel the curse, but he could change it.

There was a waterfall, deep in the kingdom of fae. It’s power seemed to be a pretty heavily hid secret, but it wasn’t exactly hard for him to find out about it. He was the damn king after all, even if a lot of his ruling was kind of hands off.

It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get Angus to want to come with him to it. In fact, Taako had just offhanded complained when he showed up one day that he was planning on heading out and didn’t have time to watch him, and Angus was begging to come along with him.

With magic it didn’t take too long for them to find. He was sure Merle and Davenport would only be mildly panicked when Angus came back a little later than usual.

“Wow,” Angus said once they finally happened upon it. “It’s beautiful sir, thank you for bringing me with you,” he said, and like, he was right. The way the water sparkled edged just a bit too bright and iridescent to be natural. It was easy to sense the power streaming through it, being so well versed in magic.

“Yeah, it’s magic as fuck too,” Taako said, walking up to the water. Angus followed along, kneeling down and looking into the large pool that gathered around the base of the waterfall.

“It is? What’s it do?” he asked.

“It can help fix curses from what I hear. Dispels something called alla magic so that ‘true love’ can fix a curse instead,” Taako explained, doing finger quotes around the true love part. He wasn’t sure how much he actually believed true love was a thing, but this was the best chance he had.

Looking at Angus crouched in front of the waterfall, his attention was completely fixed on the shimmering water in front of him.

Very carefully, Taako reached out with his foot and knocked Angus right into the water.

“Sir! That wasn’t very nice!” Angus sputtered once he came back up, and Taako let himself laugh at that. Even still, he reached out a hand and helped Angus climb out of the pool.

“It’s good for you,” Taako insisted, watching as Angus carefully tried to ring out his hat. Hopefully this would work.

It had to work.

———

They were running out of time.

Magnus knew that Lucretia insisted, over and over again, that Angus was safe. She swore that Taako’s curse wouldn’t come to pass, they just needed to be patient.

It was getting so close to his 11th birthday though. He couldn’t trust that Angus would be okay without being able to see him and protect him himself. He needed to find him.

It didn’t take too much investigating to find some guards who’d talked about a kid that would have been around Angus’s age. He was often see by the wall near the kingdom of fae, although he always seemed to just disappear. No sign of where he went or how he was getting through the wall, if that was even what he was doing.

It wasn’t a very solid lead, but it was only a few days until Angus’s 11th birthday now. It was the best one he got, and so he had to take it.

It took several tries, almost constantly scouring the boarder of crystal. Each day that passed made the panic sink a little bit deeper. How did he know that he wasn’t already too late? When was the last time Lucretia had actually checked in on Angus, if she did at all? What if something happened to whoever she’d left him with?

The day before his birthday was when it finally happened. Magnus had almost given up at this point, almost didn’t notice the small form darting between the trees, he’d been so focused on trying to stay out of sight himself. He couldn’t get a good look, but he followed, and once the child had to pass through a clearing, he saw him.

Magnus knew he hadn’t seen Angus since he was just a baby. He’d been worried that even if he found Angus, he wouldn’t be able to recognize him enough to know.

Seeing him now though, there was an absolute certainty that this was him. He was still alive, he was still  _ safe. _

For now. He was heading straight towards the kingdom of fae, towards where Taako was. Where all of the precautions Lucretia had taken to make sure he would be safe had no affect. Magnus felt panic grip him as he rushed out from where he’d been hiding in the underbrush.

“Angus!” he shouted, catching his attention instantly. His head whipped towards him, and Magnus could see the confusion and fear on his face. “Angus, please wait!” he called. He needed to explain what was going on, there was no guarantee that he had any idea the danger he was in.

Instead of waiting, Angus turned on his heels and starting running in the opposite direction. The only comfort Magnus had with that was that it wasn’t towards the kingdom of fae.

“Angus! Wait!” he yelled, beginning to chase after him. Angus was smaller and could get through the thick underbrush easier, but Magnus wasn’t deterred. He needed to catch Angus and explain to him what was going on.

He needed to make sure his son was safe for just one more day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only one more chapter now! As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed~


	5. Chapter 5

Angus ran as fast as he could through the woods back towards his house. He knew that man was still following him, could hear him running after him and calling out his name every so often. He didn’t know who he was though, or how he  _ knew _ his name. He looked familiar though, Angus knew he had seen him somewhere before.

“Merle! Mr. Davenport!” Angus called as he rushed into the house. If there was someone who knew him for some reason, they were the first people he could think to go to for answers. 

“Huh, what’s the matter Angus?” Davenport asked, looking concerned. Considering his entrance, that wasn’t surprising.

“There was a man chasing me in the woods,” Angus said. They both looked shocked by that, and then very unhappy.

“Well, just wait right here I’ll go out and make sure that’s taken care of real quick,” Merle said, grabbing a large wrench off of Davenport’s work table. Luckily Angus was still standing in the doorway so he couldn’t get out around him yet.

“Wait! He knew my name,” Angus said, which did give them pause. “I don’t know who he was but he knew who I was and I  _ swear _ I’d recognized him from somewhere before,” he said. Davenport had a contemplative look on his face now.

“Angus, what did he look like?” he asked.

“He was a big guy? Muscular, um, brown hair and sideburns, and he had a scar over his right eye,” Angus listed off.

“Oh that’s Ma- mmm, a mighty scary sounding dude, you should definitely say away from him,” Merle said, which wasn’t entirely convincing. Davenport held a hand up to his forehead, letting out a frustrated sigh.

“Ma…” Angus repeated, when it suddenly clicked who exactly that had been and where he’d seen him before. “That was  _ king Magnus?” _ he asked, both of them wincing, almost with guilt. “Why was the king out here?” he pressed. Everyone knew the king barely ever left the castle anymore. Angus had only seen him a few times from a distance on the rare occasions they had to make trips to the city. “How did he know my  _ name?” _

“Listen, Angus, it’s… complicated,” Davenport started, but Angus’s mind was spinning.

“Why would the king know who I am? I’m just-” Angus started, because it didn’t make sense. He was just some peasant kid. The only interesting thing he ever did was go to the kingdom of fae, and he kept that a secret. The king should have never heard of him, he shouldn’t have even been out in the woods. Everyone knew the King and Queen cut themselves off after a powerful, evil being had cursed their son.

Their-

“Angus, now why don’t we all just sit and-”

“I’m the prince,” Angus said, cutting Merle off. He could see panic on their faces now. And guilt. “You knew. You both  _ knew?” _ he asked.

“Angus-” Davenport started but Angus didn’t stay to listen. He had to go get help.

He had to get Taako.

———

Taako had thought Angus was coming over today. He didn’t know what was taking the kid so long.

He tried not to panic. It was possible that Merle and Davenport were just keeping a close eye on him, so close to his birthday and all. It was why Taako had wanted him to come over in the first place, although he hadn’t told him that. He just needed to make sure he was safe. He had to make sure the curse didn’t go through.

Taako tried to be subtle about the sigh of relief when he heard running and turned to see Angus rushing towards him. They were close to the wall. Taako had gotten impatient and come out here to see for himself if something had gone wrong.

“You’re late bubala,” he said, trying to sound like he wasn’t worried. There was no reason for Angus to know that anything was wrong, no use freaking him out as long as he made sure nothing happened.

“Why… why didn’t you  _ tell me _ that I’m cursed?” Angus asked between panted breaths. Taako felt his blood run cold, freezing. Angus noticed, there was no way he didn’t. Kid was too perceptive for his own good.

“I found out. I’m the prince, the one who got cursed and went missing. It’s- that’s why you’ve always been watching out for me, right?” he asked, and all Taako could do was nod. It was the truth. It was close enough to the truth, at least.

“I wanna- I’m gonna stay here. I’m gonna stay so you can protect me,” Angus said, closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around Taako’s waist in a hug. Taako didn’t hug him back, just continued to stand stock still, his hands raised up so that he didn’t touch him and risk hurting him again.

Before Taako could figure out what he was supposed to do there was a crashing in the bushes by the wall.

“Angus! Get away from him!” a familiar voice shouted, and the only thing that shocked Taako about Magnus being there is how he got through the wall. He must’ve followed Angus. He was the only one it would open for. Angus rushed behind him, still clinging to his clothes.

“No, he’s gonna protect me from the curse!” Angus insisted. Taako knew he should speak. Say  _ something. _ But he didn’t have a chance to.

“Angus,  _ he’s _ the one who cursed you!” Magnus shouted, and just like that it was out.

“What?” Angus asked, letting go of Taako. “That’s not- you didn’t, right sir? You  _ wouldn’t,” _ he asked, and Taako hated this. He didn’t know what to do and he couldn’t fucking fix this.

“It’s- fuck. Ango, I was so- I was so pissed. It was a mistake,” he finally managed to speak. There was a look of terror and pain on Angus’s face, and Taako couldn’t blame him. He took a few steps back, and Taako could see tears starting to form in his eyes. Taako turned towards Magnus.

“I changed my mind! I- I tried to reverse it. I took him to this waterfall, but it- I don’t think it worked,” he tried.

It wasn’t like Taako didn’t know how Angus would react if he ever found out. Kid had every fucking right to never want anything to do with him again. Despite that, it still hurt more than he ever wanted to fucking admit when Angus ran away from him and scrambled behind Magnus in fear.

He didn’t try to stop them when Magnus started ushering Angus away and back towards the wall.

“Taako,” Magnus said suddenly, and he wasn’t sure why he was even still talking to him. “I understand if you don’t believe me, but you need to know. Lup’s still alive.”

Taako’s head shot up, his breath caught in his throat and wanting to ask a million questions. He couldn’t say anything though, just slumping to his knees as he watched Magnus and Angus leave without looking back.

———

Angus didn’t know what to think anymore, but he knew everyone had been telling the truth.

King Magnus was his dad, and Taako had cursed him.

“Who’s Lup?” Angus asked as they walk, just wanting something, anything else to think about. They were back on the other side of the wall, and he doubted he’d be allowed to go back to the kingdom of fae ever again. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to go back. He probably shouldn’t.

“Taako’s sister. She- Taako never mentioned her before?” Magnus asked, and Angus shook his head. He wasn’t sure where he was leading him, not back towards the cottage with Merle and Davenport. Magnus sighed, and he looked pained as he spoke.

“I don’t know how much you know, but before you were born there was another king, he attacked the kingdom of fae and Lup and Taako had fought him off. Since he was dying he said that whoever could bring him one of the twins to kill would be made the next ruler. We’d been, your mom and me and Barry, and Lup and- and Taako, we’d all been friends, since we were little kids,” Magnus explained. It was so weird, Taako had never told him about any of this, but it seemed like Taako hadn’t told him a lot of things.

“Your mom, Lucretia, she tricked them. Managed to get Lup, and the old king had her burned at the stake,” Magnus said, and it was obvious how much this had tormented him over the years. “Taako had been so angry and hurt, rightfully so! I can’t blame him for that, but he shouldn’t have taken it out on you. You never had anything to do with this.”

“But you said she’s still alive,” Angus said, and he felt relieved when Magnus nodded.

“Lucretia had Barry do a spell. It didn’t keep her from burning, but it somehow cursed her to rise back up as a phoenix. They’ve been trying to undo it, but we just don’t know how to yet,” he finished. They had reached the castle now, and Angus supposed he should have guessed they were coming here. He supposed this was where he was going to live now.

Once they were inside a woman Angus recognized as the queen ran up to them. She looked panicked, glancing between him and Magnus. His dad. So he guessed this was his mom.

“What are you doing? Why did you bring him back here?” she asked, sounding terrified.

“He’s our son, this is where he’s supposed to be,” Magnus insisted, but the queen let out a frantic groan, shaking her head.

“It’s too early! It’s not safe yet!” she said.

“We can  _ protect _ him here! It’s not safe out there either! I found him with  _ Taako!” _ Magnus shouted, and even though he’d been the one to curse him it still felt wrong hearing them so panicked over that fact.

“You what?” Lucretia asked, her eyes going wide. Angus could see her quickly rethinking something in her head before speaking again. “Both of you, dungeon, now,” she said, and Angus hid behind Magnus.

“What?” he asked, but Lucretia shook her head.

“Not- not as a punishment. Just for a day, it’s- It’s the safest place we have, the easiest to defend. Magnus, please, just take him there and watch him until I figure this out,” she said. Angus still didn’t like this plan at all, but after a moment Magnus nodded.

“Alright, just until we think of something better,” he relented, taking Angus by the shoulder and leading him down further into the castle. Angus wanted to protest, but it was all so much so fast that he let himself be moved along.

“I’m really sorry about this Angus,” Magnus said once they were down in the dungeon. Angus nodded, somewhat relieved when he saw that his dad hadn’t actually locked them in. He’d made the motion, and Angus figured he was hoping that Angus just thought they were locked in.

“It’s alright sir,” Angus said, and Magnus flinched slightly at that. It took him a moment to realize why. It probably wasn’t great for his dad to hear him call him sir, but neither of them commented on it.

For a while it was just quiet, and Angus was desperately trying to think of what to do. It was so much new information that had been shoved at him at once and he was struggling to put it all together. There had to be some way to fix this. He cared about Taako, and as much as it hurt to know what he’d done it was- he had to still care about him too, right? Even if he hadn’t always, he said he tried to fix it. That was why he took him to that waterfall, Angus had thought he’d just pushed him in for a goof but-

Wait.

The waterfall!

“I know how to fix Lup!” he shouted suddenly, scaring Magnus.

“Wait, what?” he asked, and Angus had jumped up from where he’d been kind of moping in the corner and started pacing around the small room.

“I mean, I don’t know for sure, but I think I know something that can help!” he said, his dad looking at him in shock.

“Wait, you do? Seriously?” he asked, and Angus nodded.

“Yes! Where are Mr. Barry and Lup?” he asked, because he needed to tell them. Maybe if they fixed Lup they could get Taako to listen finally and figure out a way to solve all of this.

“Up in the tower, but- wait, Angus!” Magnus called after him, but as soon as he heard where they were Angus ran for it. The door wasn’t locked, and he managed to slip through and, feeling kind of bad about it, locked it behind him. He didn’t want his dad trying to stop him.

“Sorry! I’ll be right back!” he called through the door before rushing up the stairs. He could hear his dad continuing to call after him but he didn’t stop, and despite the occasional confused palace worker shouting in surprise as he ran past it didn’t take long for him to find the right tower. When he ran in the man inside jumped, dropping the book he was holding in the process. There were hundreds of books in this room, more than Angus had ever seen at once before. A part of him wanted to look through them, but he had more important things to take care of right now.

“Mr. Barry!” he shouted, and the man was staring at him in wide eyed confusion. There was a large, shimmering red bird on the desk next to him, that also seemed equally as confused. That must’ve been Lup.

“Yeah, I’m- wait, who are you? What are you doing in here?” he asked.

“I’m sorry for barging in. My name’s Angus, I’m- I think I know how to fix Ms. Lup,” he said. There was clear shock and confusion on Barry’s face at that, and he glanced over at the bird before looking back at him. The bird was also staring at him, seemingly listening intently.

“You do? How?” he asked.

“There’s a waterfall in the kingdom of fae. Mr. Taako said it can break curses, it might be enough to turn her back to normal,” he said, and the phoenix’s head jolted up seemingly in realization. There were the sounds of running outside of the tower now, and Angus could hear shouting coming from down below out the window. Something was going on, they probably realized he’d broken out of the dungeon.

“Wait, Taako told you?” Barry asked, and Angus nodded. He didn’t have a lot of time before someone came in here and made him leave.

“Yes! It’s not far, it’s- here,” Angus said, grabbing a close by book. He didn’t know what it was for, he still didn’t know how to read. He’d just been planning on drawing some sort of map for them.

“Angus, wait!” Barry shouted, starting to rush across the room towards him in a panic. As Angus quickly flipped through the pages looking for a blank one to write on, he felt a sharp sting as one of them cut him.

“Ouch,” he snapped, pulling his hand away and shaking it. Suddenly the pain was gone though, and his hand felt numb. His whole body was numb, and it was hard to think. Hard to keep his eyes open.

He was asleep before he hit the ground.

——

It didn’t take long for Taako to break. He knew Angus would never want anything to do with him again, he knew for a  _ fact _ that Magnus and Merle and everyone else had written him off as a lost cause ages ago. He knew that right now everyone would be happy if he stayed away and never interfered with their lives again.

Taako couldn’t say he cared much if anyone came out of this happy anymore.

He just needed to make sure that Angus made it through the day safe.

As much as he wanted to cut a fucking war path through to the castle, he could be smart about this. He was panicking and his heart hurt but he was trying to be  _ smart. _ He couldn't protect Angus if he got caught before he even stepped foot in the castle. He didn’t have much else left, he didn’t know what would happen if this broke too.

So, he cloaked himself. Put up the same disguise as when he’d went to find what was left of Lup, and headed straight towards the castle. There was a commotion going on outside once he got there, although he couldn’t be sure what about. Probably the prince returning, if he had to guess

It didn’t take much magic for him to teleport inside, just like he had on the day he’d cursed Angus. Except not exactly like that, it wasn’t showy. He was trying to stay out of the way, hidden. He didn’t know where Angus was. Then he heard shouting, guards and what sounded like Magnus saying something about the tower, so that’s where he went. He moved swiftly with magic, staying hidden and wrapped up in shadows so that they didn’t notice him moving past to get there before they did.

He didn’t know what he expected to see when he got up there. Lup alive? Taako didn’t know why Magnus would tell him something like that. Would lie like that to hurt him even worse, because it had to be a lie. After so long, there was no way Lup was coming back.

And there was no way he was going to be able to fix this.

Angus was up here, like he expected. So was Barry, and it’d been years since they’d seen each other but Taako could barely focus on his old friend. He was crouched over Angus’s form, a panicked look on his face and seeming afraid to touch him. The rest of the room was empty, except for books, hundreds of them.

Taako had known Lucretia would never have been able to destroy them all.

He let the magic keeping him concealed drop, and at his appearance Barry’s head shot up and he stumbled back some. Taako could see clearly now the passed out from of Angus, a book lying open on the floor close by.

There was shouting coming from behind him, and Taako could hear guards and Lucretia and Magnus running frantically up the stairs. He didn’t have to turn around to know when they spotted him. He could hear their gasps and the frantic movement of weapons being drawn. He didn’t pay them any mind.

Instead he just fell to his knees, his voice sounding hoarse and broken as he spoke.

“I’m sorry. I-  _ fuck. _ I swear, no more harm will come to you as long as I live,” he said, knowing Angus couldn’t hear him. From where he was sitting, pink tourmaline spread out rapidly, the panicked shouts and confusion cut out and replaced with an overwhelming silence as the world around him turned to stone.

——

Lup was flying fast. She needed this to work, she couldn’t stand being trapped and useless and unable to think clearly anymore.

A waterfall. Angus has said there was a waterfall that could fix this. She could almost remember it, her mind foggy and clouded as it was. When it came into view she knew for sure that it was the right place, that this was the best chance she had at returning to herself again.

As she flew across the spray, she could feel herself changing, and she barely managed to get to land before her wing were gone completely and she could stand on actual legs. For a moment all she could do was stand there, staring at her hands ( _ hands! _ She had hands again!) as her mind cleared. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been aware for the past decade, she had been, but thinking had been hard. Existing had been hard.

God, she’d been away for so long. She needed to get back. She needed to let Taako know she was okay. She needed-

“Taako! Taako you’re back I- wait,” someone called out, and when Lup turned towards the voice there was someone she didn’t recognize. Handsome as fuck though, definitely her brother’s type. “You’re not Taako,” he said, and Lup shook her head.

“Nope, and you are?” she asked.

“Kravitz,” he said, and that didn’t give her any real answers. He seemed to sense that, and quickly continued. “I’m a bird,” he said, which was weird, but honestly, not the weirdest.

“What a coincidence, I was a bird until a few minutes ago,” she said, kind of laughing at the ridiculousness of all this. She didn’t know what was going on, but she needed to figure something out.

“You’re Lup,” Kravitz said finally, which she figured was obvious. If this guy was close to her brother, he had to know who she was. “I- Taako thought- how are you  _ alive?” _

“It’s a long story. I need to get back to Taako, where is he? I need to tell him I’m okay,” she said, and Kravitz seemed to realize how important this was at least, nodding.

“He was waiting for Angus, I should have gone with him. There’s no way it didn’t go wrong,” he said, and Lup nodded. From what little she’d heard from Angus and from the fact that he’d even been at the castle at all, she had a feeling he was right.

Turned out Krav wasn’t joking about the bird thing, and it was quick work to transform the dude into a horse to ride back to the castle. Her heart sank when she saw the crystal wall he’d put up, the physical proof of just how closed off he’d become with her gone.

It was even worse as they neared the castle and they could see exactly what had become of it.

The whole thing was the same pink crystal as the wall and of Taako’s own palace off in the horizon. It wasn’t just the castle though. Lup could see guards out front, panicked and frozen in stone.

“Oh no,” she said, jumping off of Kravitz and walking towards the petrified sight. There was a moment of hesitation when she stepped down on the crystal ground, but it didn’t spread to her. She turned back towards Kravitz, quickly turning him back into a man. “Stay there. It’s- I don’t think it affects fae, but I’m not sure what’ll happen if you touch it,” she said, and he reluctantly nodded.

“Be careful, just try to talk some sense into him,” Kravitz said. Lup headed into the castle with that, and there wasn’t anything to stop her. All of the guards and servants were frozen solid, and Lup slowly made her way back up to the tower. At one point it became hard to make her way up the stairs, the hall was so packed with frozen guards. She passed Magnus and Lucretia at the top, and it felt like a shot to her heart to see them frozen as well.

She wasn’t surprised to see Taako at the top of the tower, still himself. Angus wasn’t frozen either, his form still lying on the ground, asleep. Barry was locked in place, a few steps back from them. Taako didn’t even turn around to face her, she wasn’t sure if he heard her come up at all, despite the echoing sounds of her steps.

“Taako,” she said, and she saw his ears twitch at the sound of her voice. “Taako, it’s me,” she insisted. Slowly he looked up at her, before letting out a dry, hallow laugh and staring back down at the floor.

“Great. Perfect. Now I’m fucking seeing things on top of everything,” he said, and Lup couldn’t blame him for thinking that. She quickly headed over to him, kneeling down next to her brother and grabbing his hands.

“Taako, I’m here. I’m really here, I promise,” she said. She could see the confusion and disbelief swirling across his face as he slowly realized she was telling the truth. Then he slumped up against her, his face buried in her shoulder as he shook.

“I didn’t- I had no idea what I was fucking doing. I thought you were  _ dead,” _ he choked out, and Lup pulled him into a hug.

“I know. I’m so, so sorry Taako,” she said, wishing it hadn’t taken this long to get back to him. That things hadn’t gone this far. She was surprised when he pulled back from her some to look down at Angus.

“Damn kid. I-” Taako stumbled over his words, wiping away the few tears that had managed to escape. “I thought I didn’t give a shit anymore. It’s- you were _ gone.  _ It didn’t even feel like I had a fucking heart anymore, but I guess I did. Brat somehow managed to steal something that wasn’t even there anymore,” he mumbled. Lup didn’t know what to say, it hurt seeing her brother this broken.

“I thought- when Magnus came, I thought that maybe if I let him go back with his real family they’d love him enough to break the curse. But it didn’t work. They stole you and they couldn’t fix Angus,” he said, and Lup shook her head.

“Taako, Lucretia and Barry did everything they could to try and save me. They kept me safe all these years,” she said.

“Why couldn’t they  _ tell me _ you were alive? I could have helped!” he snapped, and Lup sighed.

“They wanted to, Taako. They tried, but you wouldn’t listen to them. You completely cut yourself off, how were they supposed to get you to even begin to trust them?” she said, and she saw his shoulders slump at that, realization dawning on him.

“Fuck,” he said, his voice broken and hurting.

“Come on,” Lup said, putting a hand on his shoulders. “Let’s go home.”

———

Lup was really alive. Magnus had been telling the truth.

Taako didn’t know what else he was supposed to do. He nodded when Lup said they should go home, letting her pull him up to his feet. He looked around himself really for the first time, and it was like a knife in his chest but he put the damn thing there himself.

“Please, turn them back Taako. It’s not right, they don’t deserve it,” Lup said, and he knew she was right. She was always right. Slowly the crystal started to retreat, the castle turning back to its original form. As the guards and the people who used to be his friends, who’d probably never want anything to do with him again, shifted back they fell to the floor, knocked out cold. They were alive though. They’d wake up soon enough, and they needed to be out of there before that happened.

Despite that Taako hesitated, looking back down where Angus lay. Leaning down, he scooped him up and brought him over to a bed shoved in the corner. Taako guessed Barry must’ve been sleeping up here a lot.

“I’m sorry pumpkin. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep you safe until we can find some way to save you too,” he said, the words struggling to form in his throat. Leaning down, he pressed a quick kiss to Angus’s forehead. Taking a deep breath, he turned and headed back over to Lup so that they could both leave before everyone else woke up.

“Sir?”

Taako froze at the sound, slowly looking over at Lup to make sure he hadn’t been the only one to hear that. He wasn’t, he could see the shock on her face too. Glancing back to the bed, he was almost afraid of what he’d see. There was Angus though, looking at them in sleepy confusion.

“Oh, the waterfall must’ve worked. Good,” he said, and Taako let out a disbelieving laugh. People were starting to wake up now, but he didn’t care, heading over and wrapping Angus up in a hug. He could hear Lup frantically and quietly explaining what was going on to the others as they woke up.

“Don’t scare me like that, you brat,” Taako muttered, Angus laughing slightly.

“Um, I’m pretty sure that’s actually your fault, sir,” he said, and yeah okay, Taako couldn’t argue with that.

———

Angus stared at himself in the mirror, trying to make sure everything was in place. He never really cared much about his appearance, but he knew today was important and he should at least try to look his best.

He saw the door open in the mirror and Taako peek in, a grin on his face when he caught sight of Angus.

“Hell yeah, looking good my dude,” he said, coming fully into the room. He was also dressed up, but it seemed lot more natural for him.

“You don’t think it’s too much?” Angus asked, waving the bright red cape he was wearing somewhat. Taako came up to stand next to him, looking over his reflection in the mirror.

“Not enough if you ask me, but you do you pumpkin,” he said. Then Angus saw him glance between their reflections for a moment before frowning. “What have I told you about getting taller than me? Stop it,” he said, and Angus laughed at that, some of the nervousness that had been building up inside of him lessening.

“If it bothers you that much, you can always wear taller shoes,” he suggested. Without breaking eye contact Taako made a quick motion with one hand, and Angus watched as he lifted up another inch or so until he was just barely taller than him. When he glanced down his shoes did indeed have a higher heel than they did before.

“So, you ready to get out there?” Taako asked, and Angus quickly shook his head.

“Nope,” he said, some of his nerves seeping through. It got a laugh out of Taako, which wasn’t surprising.

“Hey now, you’re gonna do fucking great pumpkin. A way better ruler to these kingdoms than me or Luce ever was,” Taako said.

“You really think so?”

“Of course,” Taako said, and it really did seem like he meant it. Taako wasn’t sincere a lot of the time, but it was easy for Angus to tell when he was.

“Thanks Taako,” he said, and Taako grinned.

“Now, let’s get out there and get this coronation popping off, alright?” he said, and even though he still felt insanely nervous Angus nodded. If Taako and his parents thought he could do this, then the least he could do was try.

There had never been a single ruler over both the kingdom of fae and the kingdom of man before, but he was going to try his best. There had never been a human crowned in the kingdom of fae either, but Angus was thankful that it was happening here.

He was happy that after everything that had happened, the kingdoms were finally together, the wall between them brought down in more ways than one.

As nervous as he was about the future trying to rule, he had a feeling it was going to be pretty good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaand we've done it, we've climbed the whole mountain kids. This fic was really fun to work on, especially since i'm always a sucker for Taako and Angus bonding. I wanna thank darkrystalSky again for the request, i greatly appreciate it. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed this fic!


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